adly
giddiness threatened to overpower him. He felt an impulse to throw
himself over, which he could scarcely resist; and it was only by falling
on his face and shutting his eyes that he recovered his presence of
mind. After thus lying for several minutes, with beating heart and
quaking limbs, until by degrees he became more at ease, he ventured to
look around him once more, and fixed his eyes on the nest, which was now
only about fifty paces farther on.

After waiting a few minutes longer, to be sure that his courage had
returned, he made a fresh start, determining not to allow anything to
alarm him again; and soon reached the end of the ridge, and viewed the
nest with the young vultures before him. But here still another
difficulty presented itself. The rock, which up to this point had been
quite level, rose at the extreme end about eight feet above the ridge,
and formed a sort of projecting platform, which the parent birds, with
their wonderful sagacity, had deemed the most suitable spot on which to
take up their abode. As he measured the height with his eye, Walter
began to fear that after all he would be obliged to return without
accomplishing his object, for the rock was so smooth as scarcely to
afford the least hold to either his hands or feet. Fortunately, however,
he recollected his little axe, which might do him good service if the
stone, as he hoped, proved soft. Raising himself cautiously, he drew the
axe from his belt, and while supporting himself with the left hand,
dealt the rock several vigorous blows with the right, and to his great
delight succeeded in making notches, by which, if he only went carefully
to work, he could accomplish his object.

With renewed courage he clambered up the almost perpendicular rock, and
his curly hair and sunburned face soon appeared above the edge of the
nest. The next moment he leaned over, seized the young birds in spite of
their angry cries, transferred them one after the other to his bag, and
throwing it across his shoulder, began to return on the dangerous road
by which he had come. In common, however, with the experience of all who
have ascended precipitous heights, he soon found that going down was
much more difficult than had been the coming up; but ignoring the fact
that he had beneath him a precipice two thousand feet deep, he devoted
all his attention to the work immediately before him, and carefully
descended the rocky wall step by step, till he reached the le